


By The Light of a Tender Fire

by Lavender_chan



Series: Tumblr Requests [3]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Mentions of Smut, Soul healing, Treating injuries, a few darker themes, pre-undertale storyline, sansby - Freeform, slight soul teasing, soul play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 19:11:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7544512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavender_chan/pseuds/Lavender_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr Request: <i>I got a request if that’s OK - some Sansby? Like Sans gets sick & Grillby nurses him to health? Pls n thx</i></p><p>Grillby tends to his closed bar when Sans suddenly stumbles in, near death; with the strange mutterings of a flower, Grillby takes Sans in and prepares to heal his wounded lover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	By The Light of a Tender Fire

**Author's Note:**

> **Wordcount:** ~1605
> 
>  **Notes:** Okay, this was supposed to be complete fluff, but it started to spiral into something else, so I hope this fills your request somewhat, haha…This takes place pre-Undertale, at some point when Flowey had control over the RESETs; I hope you all enjoy it!

To say that Snowdin was the idyllic small town—quiet, peaceful, where you know your neighbor and they knew you—wasn’t far from the truth. In terms of setting up a stable business in order to help his family in New Home, namely his sister and her child, Grillby felt he had made the sound and stable choice.

Nothing ever happened in Snowdin, of course; the residence and their ancestors were the first to settle down in the Underground and it was easy to see why: many of the people who lived in Snowdin were laid back, hardworking and were the type able to buckle down and wait for good news, even if it meant waiting centuries.

Of course there were exceptions.

Grillby smiled to himself as one such exception walked into his bar now—only one monster would come into his bar while it was closed and would be closed until later tonight. Grillby opened his mouth to greet Sans, but immediately he knew something was _very_ wrong.

Sans stumbled as soon as he got two steps into the bar and hit the ground hard enough to make Grillby wince, as he rushed to Sans’s side.

“h-heyya…grillbz,” Sans grimaced, trying to smile as Grillby plucked him from the ground and back onto his knees.

“What happened?!” Even as he asked, Grillby reached forward with his magic and started to ease Sans’s soul from his body.

The familiar warmth and fluttering of Grillby’s magic soothed Sans even as he leaned into the fire elemental’s arms.

“fuckin’ flower…” Sans mumbled, his eyes drooping low.

“”Stay awake, Sans!” Grillby glanced over Sans’s stats and cursed when he saw Sans was only alive by mere decimal points; Grillby almost trembled when he saw that Sans’s health was dropping still, slowly and steadily.

Grillby gently nudged Sans into his arms, hooking his arms under Sans’s legs and back before lifting the skeleton and hurrying through the back door and down to his basement apartment. The fire elemental’s mind buzzed with worry and wondering just what Sans meant by a ‘flower’. As far as Grillby knew, there were no flower monsters and certainly nothing like that here in Snowdin.

“Sans, stay awake,” Grillby said again, before laying Sans on his couch and hurrying to his kitchen. A monster candy would normally be enough for a monster like Sans with a low base health, but Sans had always been a little strange in that respect. One HP was unheard of, even in children, yet Sans handled it every day.

“m’wake…” Sans answered weakly when Grillby knelt in front of the couch and helped Sans eat the small piece of candy.

Just like Grillby suspected, Sans’s HP didn’t refill, but it at least had stopped its slow descent.

“Where’s Papyrus?” Grillby didn’t expect a coherent answer, and Sans didn’t seem able to give one as the short skeleton grunted weakly.

If monster food wasn’t going to help…

Grillby moved tenderly, his arms lifting Sans so that the fire elemental could settle on the couch with Sans in his lap; Grillby could feel Sans’s spine rest against his chest. Sans’s soul still floated in front of him and Grillby’s hands reached forward to gently cup the skeleton monster’s soul. Sans gasped weakly, but Grillby wasn’t deterred.

The white soul pulsed weakly in his hands, and Grillby tried his best to ignore the grainy feeling of dust against its surface. There was a task to be done, and Grillby was focused on doing it. Sans hummed in appreciation as the palms of Grillby’s hands began to warm to an intense level.

Flames began to lick and surround Sans’s soul, which caused the short skeleton to moan and twitch against Grillby’s body. In any other circumstance, Grillby would consider this a win, a start to one of their long nights together, but all of Grillby’s focus was on feeding Sans his magical energy, slowly-- _ever_ so slowly—bringing Sans back up to his full, and meager, 1 HP.

“grillbz?”

Sans’s voice was hoarse from weakness, but Grillby simply steadied the skeleton with one arm while the other continued to feed the flame of his magic, which had completely engulfed Sans’s soul.

“Don’t move around too much,” Grillby said quietly, “You came in mostly dust, Sans; what happened?”

Sans hesitated and Grillby pressed, “Sans, talked to me.”

“i’m…i…” Sans struggled for a moment and Grillby had a notion that Sans was afraid that he would say something he shouldn’t.

“Sans,” Grillby said his name quietly, letting his voice rumble in his chest; it might be considered a dirty tactic, considering how Sans shuddered at the feeling, but anxiety and fear were pooling in the fire elemental’s stomach now, and Grillby repeated what he said before, with a tremble of fear in his voice, “You came to me almost dust; I don’t think I can sleep tonight if you don’t say _something_ …”

Sans took a deep breath and nodded, his eyes watching the way Grillby’s magic surrounded his soul so wholly and so protectively.

“there’s…a flower that’s been chattin with paps,” Sans finally said.

“A flower?” Grillby paused, “Like, an echo flower?”

“that’s what i guessed at first,” Sans shook his head, “but this wasn’t no echo flower, grillbz.”

“So was it a monster?”

There was a pause as Sans considered Grillby’s question, “…no. i…i mean, sorta? i guess? it didn’t have a _soul_.”

Grillby froze, letting Sans’s words sink in, “Sans, that’s not…"

It wasn’t possible; how could something living not of a soul? Except, Grillby knew Sans wouldn’t lie; Sans was many things—a prankster, a jokester, even a scammer on occasion—but Sans was no liar.

“Where’s Papyrus right now?” Grillby asked quietly.

“with undyne, i hope,” Sans groaned, sinking deeping into Grillby’s hold.

Undyne. Grillby knew of the fish monster from the fact that she was Captain of the Royal Guard; the youngest one in over three centuries, if Grillby could still trust his memory. Her gang of dog-guardsmen usually came into his bar every night to relax and play poker, though she rarely joined them.

“Will he be ok?” Grillby rested his head on Sans’s shoulder, though he hadn’t stopped the aura of his magic that was still surrounding Sans’s soul.

“i….think he will,” Sans answered, but Grillby could hear the hesitation in his voice and could feel the way his body trembled for a moment.

“You’re not handling this well,” Grillby held Sans tighter.

Sans swallowed before he finally spoke again, “that flower…he wasn’t just toyin with me; he had no, absolutely _no_ fear of bein dusted and it just felt…it felt like i fought with him for days. like time was skippin or restartin and i was gunna be trapped fightin him for the rest of my life and once he was done with me, paps was next-“

Grillby’s hand came up and helped Sans turn his head so he could press his fiery lips to Sans’s teeth, silencing him for a moment before he pulled away, “You’re safe here, Sans; no one is going after you, and Papyrus is with Undyne.”

Sans didn’t look convinced, so Grillby added, “Call Papyrus, Sans; call your brother and ask him to stay with Undyne and you stay here with me.”

Sans hesitated, but nodded, “yeah…yeah I will…”

Grillby glanced toward one of the small windows that usually were covered and blocked with snow while Sans pulled out his cellphone to make the call, and found that one of them had been cleared—probably by his own snow-shoveling. The Underground looked so peaceful; there wasn’t a single clue that his boyfriend had almost been dusted by a creature unlike any other seen in the Underground before. Just what could Grillby do? What could he even begin to think in order to keep his skeleton safe?

There was a strange constricting in his throat as Sans finished the call, and Grillby found himself holding Sans’s soul a little tighter.

“ah…” Sans sighed, a blue blush dusting his cheeks.

Grillby’s thumb brushed gently along the soul’s surface and he sucked in a breath when he felt Sans tremble in his lap from it.

They made love then, his skeleton and he; what other comfort could Grillby give? He’d never heard of such a creature and the thought of it…if he was being truly honest, it scared him almost as much as it surely scared Sans. Someone targeting Papyrus—who had never, and would never, hurt anyone—and without provocation attacking Sans, taking him to the brink of death?

Grillby tried to keep his mind on Sans as he moved over the skeleton, his fingers brushing bare bone, and his lips leading Sans to his peak.

Just what else could Grillby do?

The two of them slept in each other’s arms on Grillby’s couch, Sans falling quickly—a sign that Grillby had at least managed to make Sans feel safe for the night—but Grillby couldn’t find sleep so easily. His eyes kept getting drawn to the window, where the snow was cleared and gave him almost an uninterrupted view of the main street of Snowdin.

Snowflakes fell slowly, but his mind wasn’t on the weather, or even on the idyllic town he was watching.

His thoughts were on his lover; on this…creature that attacked. They were on the fact that even though monsters had long since been driven into this mountain, it still felt like a foreign and altogether dangerous place. Who really knew what lived in the darkest parts of the cave systems?

Sans seemed to have caught a glimpse, and that terrified Grillby.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always appreciated, and please follow my tumblr: [PurpleUndertaleMom.tumblr.com](http://purpleundertalemom.tumblr.com/) My ask is always open!


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